Legalized assisted-suicide would stifle all chances of successfully identifying and treating potential suicide victims in response to their cry for help.THE ULTIMATE HOAX:
LEGALIZED ASSISTED SUICIDE!
THE FACT IS
suicide...
LISTEN TO SOMEONE WHO KNOWS - SOMEONE WHO TRIED
Anne-Grace Scheinin attempted suicide several times. Then, upon experiencing the grief and pain caused by her own mother's suicide, she abandoned any idea of killing herself and wrote in NEWSWEEK in 1983:
Suicide is not a normal death. It is tragic beyond the most shattering experiences, and the ultimate form of abandonment. There is no fate on which to place the blame. It rests squarely on the victim and the people left behind, many of whom spend the rest of their lives wondering, never knowing, if there was anything they could have done to prevent such a tragedy.
THE HEMLOCK SOCIETY MODELED A BILL TO PROMOTE ASSISTED SUICIDE
In January 1986, the Hemlock Society published a model bill. This is the model for bills being introduced in several states entitled "Humane and Dignified Death Act".
This bill would require a physician to assist his terminally ill patient's request for "aid in dying." Those favoring euthanasia are hard at work promoting such legislation concerning euthanasia, suicide and assisted-suicide.
Following are a few of the premises of assisted suicide contained on the model bills being introduced all over the country:
"
..a private experience"The Premise:
Certain persons ought to have the right to kill themselves since suicide harms no one else.
THE FACT:
Suicide not only has devastating effects on the victim's family, but it can create an adverse impact on our teens who are making suicide pacts in alarming numbers. Our older citizens, too, are aware of a growing 'duty to die" attitude in our society.
..death with dignity"
The Premise:
The lives of the handicapped, the terminally ill, the victjms of Alzheimers Disease and the chronically depressed are not meaningful because they are dependent on others for basic means of support.
THE FACT:
These people are in need of LIFE with dignity - not death! As a society we must affirm the value and dignity of those in need by providing services, support and love. When we abandon the elderly, the sick and the handicapped, offering only death as a resolution of their needs, we are saying "You are worthless." When someone feels worthless they are stripped of their dignity and their dependency becomes unbearable.
..a humane solution"
The Premise:
'Denial of nutrition may, in the long run, become the only effective way to make certain that a large number of biologically tenacious patients actually die."
Daniel Callahan, ethicist.THE FACT:
"Death by dehydration is accompanied by fever, convulsions, retraction of the eyes into their orbits, drying out of the mouth and skin, etc. before death results in a week or so, a cruel and violent death." Yet AMA'S judicial council "has given full support to non-voluntary mercy killing by omission (denying nutrition)." Many euthanasia activists urge that dehydration is inhumane and that a lethal injection is more "caring." Such assisted execution is highly subject to temptation and abuse.
..a rational choice"
The Premise:
"Suicide is a rational choice of one whose quality of life is diminished by the loss of intellectual capacity, physical ability, or freedom from pain." Arthur koestler, A Guide to Self-Deliverance.
THE FACT:
An earnest request for assistance at suicide is a cry for help by one in great stress, pain, anguish and weakness. At such a time, thought processes do not function normally - alternatives seem not to exist. At this point, understanding, professional counseling, and medical care must be offered to help the potential suicide victim in recognizing the underlying problems and in alleviating the pain.
Sadly, some are determined to kill themselves no matter what services or support family, friends, or society can offer. But, considering all the facts, this handful of people alone have not provided a compelling enough reason for a rational society to legalize assisted self-killing.
In addition, persons asked to assist at suicide are placed under enormous emotional burden, because THEY ARE ASKED TO EXECUTE A FRIEND OR LOVED ONE.
WHERE WILL LEGALIZED ASSISTED-SUICIDE LEAD US?
Legalized assisted-suicide would stifle all chances of successfully identifying and treating potential suicide victims in response to their cry for help.
The aged, senile, seriously ill and handicapped would be at the mercy of a coercive family or public health policies.
American society is presently being softened for the leap from "humane mercy killing" to the involuntary elimination of dependent and powerless senile persons.
Even now "suicide manuals" with explicit dosages and methods are being published and offered for general use in this country and abroad. For instance, the Hemlock Society members now freely distribute their "recipes."
Once the door is opened, who will be able to differentiate between assisted suicide and murder? The essential components of the doctor-patient relationship will be compromised when the physician becomes the killer, rather than the healer.
It is important to inform ourselves the realities of suicide and the implications of 'assisted' suicide before it's too late!
From a pamplet by Missouri Citizens for Life
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